


White Powder Lab

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Series: Every Ship Is A Good Ship [20]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU - Magic Laboratory, Benny's Still a Vampire, Consent is Sexy, Human!Castiel - Freeform, M/M, Multi, love potions, pranks gone wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25140940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: A prank gone wrong leads to work being far more interesting than Benny could have expected.
Relationships: Castiel/Benny Lafitte/Dean Winchester
Series: Every Ship Is A Good Ship [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1600348
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	White Powder Lab

**Author's Note:**

> Prompts from [here](https://bleep0bleep.tumblr.com/prompts).  
> Setting: Laboratory  
> Genre: Romantic Comedy  
> Trope: Enemies to Friends to Lovers  
> Prompt: Magical themes (love spells; magical characters or creatures; magical lands or settings; predictions; curses; possession; fairytales

Benny swirled the flask, watching as the color changed from blue to a deep purplish-red. When it started heating up, he set the beaker down. He added a pinch of sugar and immediately put a rubber stopper in the flask. What was supposed to happen was that the solution would vaporize, and if the fumes got out, things would get very awkward in the lab very quickly. The stopper had a hole in it, with a hose to guide the newly-formed gas into a large holding tank, so the flask wouldn’t explode.

What actually happened was that his potion turned to sludge. Benny stared at it, trying to figure out what had happened. He turned around at an unexpected noise, and saw Dean peeking around the corner, snickering. “The hell’d you do, asshole?” Benny snarled.

“What makes you think I did anything?” Dean gasped through his laughter. “Not my fault you’re such a crappy mage you mess up a simple potion. What even were you trying to do?”

“Sure you didn’t do anything. You just happened to be passin’ my door right at the moment this went wrong, but you didn’t know anything about it at all. Right.” Benny turned back to the potion, staring at it. Things had gone wrong when he’d added the sugar and capped the flask. The sugar seemed the more likely culprit, so Benny took another pinch to look at. Now that he was looking at it properly, the problem was obvious. This wasn’t sugar. It was salt. He checked the label on the jar, like he’d done once when he got it from the stock room and again when he was preparing to add it. Sugar, it said. “Funny, Dean. Switched the labels on the salt and sugar this mornin’?”

Dean just laughed harder. “Again, what makes you think it was me? I didn’t do anything. I just happened to be passing by the right place at the right time. You wanna keep blaming me, or figure out how to fix this before Crowley has your ass?”

Benny pulled the stopper from the flask. As much as he wanted to keep blaming Dean, he needed to get back to work. If he could prove Dean was responsible for changing the labels, that would be one thing, but he couldn’t. He could at least try to figure out a use for this sludge, or he could throw it away and get to work on remaking the potion he was supposed to be making. He was still deciding which way he was going when an explosion made the choice for him, as the sludge went flying as he jumped.

He should stick around to make sure the sludge wasn’t going to eat a hole in the table or the floor or wherever it had landed, but he didn’t bother. He just took off running. The sound had come from the direction of Castiel’s lab, and Castiel was one of the few people here he actually liked. One of the few who didn’t judge him for his little blood problem.

Dean being right behind him was no surprise. Castiel and Dean were best friends for some reason Benny had long since given up trying to understand. Dean stopping and putting an arm around Benny’s waist while they looked into the lab? That was a surprise. A huge surprise.

Castiel was fine, thankfully, but his lab was covered in black powder. “You all right there, Castiel?” Benny asked, ignoring Dean in favor of his friend.

“I’m… alive.” Castiel picked himself up off the floor, brushing powder off his lab coat and goggles. “That was not supposed to happen.”

“No shit, Cas.” Dean cuddled in against Benny, and now Benny was annoyed enough to shove him off. “What was supposed to happen?”

“I was trying to make a fire potion, but it wasn’t supposed to blow up. Nothing seems to be on fire, at least, which is kind of disappointing in a way.” Castiel looked between Benny and Dean. “Since when can you two stand each other?”

“Don’t know.” Benny suddenly got a horrible suspicion and headed over to the bench. One of the major components of every fire potion he knew was salt. Sure enough, he found a jar just like the one he’d been fooled by, and that was the wrong crystal in there, too. “Dean, if this was you pullin’ a prank… congratulations. You coulda killed Castiel.”

Dean stared at the jar in horror, and then up at Benny and Castiel. “I’m sorry, guys. Cas, man, if I’d known you were working with fire potions today…”

“You knew I was working on…” Benny trailed off as Dean flung himself into Castiel’s arms, hugging him tight. Sure, they were friends, but this kind of demonstrative behavior was not like Dean at all. Weirder still was that Benny wanted to go over and join them both. Castiel’s confusion was just too cute.

A dark reddish-brown stain on Castiel’s lab coat caught Benny’s attention, and he went over to them. “Castiel, you bleedin’?”

Castiel looked down at himself, putting a hand to the stain. “No, and there’s no pain…” He pulled the hand away and sniffed cautiously at his fingers. “Also, it smells more flowery than coppery. See?” He stuck the fingers in Benny’s face, probably intending Benny to smell them. Benny had no explanation for the fact that instead, he decided to lick the… sludge…

Well, shit. Now Benny had a pretty good idea what was happening. He’d been working on a love potion, and apparently, the sludge wasn’t completely useless. The good news: it should wear off in a bit. The bad news: if this love sludge’s abilities were based on the original, it only brought out feelings that were already there. Amplified them, removed inhibitions, yes, but it didn’t create anything. Which meant that somewhere in there, he was attracted to Dean. Castiel didn’t surprise him, but Dean? And even weirder, it was requited. Dean liked him back.

“Guys, don’t get me wrong, I wanna continue this, but we gotta stop,” Benny said.

Dean pouted at him, and dammit, it was freaking adorable. “Crowley won’t mind. Heck, Crowley would probably encourage.”

“Not what I meant, Chief,” Benny said. “I was meanin’ that we gotta stop because we’re all under the influence of the potion you messed up.”

“So?” Dean reached out and grabbed Benny’s arm, pulling him closer to himself and Castiel. “Your potion doesn’t make anyone do anything they don’t wanna do.”

“If it had gone right, no, it wouldn’t.” Benny summoned the strength of will to get Dean’s hand off his arm and step back. “We don’t know how this sludge works. If the changed ingredient did more than change its final state.”

“You are such a killjoy,” Dean pouted, but at least he didn’t reach out for Benny again. “Fine, let’s wait it out and see. I’m still gonna want the two of you.”

“Whatever you say, Chief. Forgive my lack of faith in that statement, given that you and I don’t get along. You hate bloodsuckers.”

Dean shook his head. “Got over that a long time ago. Sammy smacked some sense into me. Which I know ain’t the most believable scenario, since he hated you for getting the job after he walked out, but it’s true.”

Benny raised an eyebrow, but decided to let it go. Castiel was nodding, so maybe it was true. He’d still want to hear it once the potion wore off. “I’d better get back to work. If the sludge works like the gas, this should’ve worn off by quittin’ time… I’m goin’ to Purgatory for dinner.” It wasn’t the plan when he woke up this morning, but Purgatory was the only place he knew where he could get his dinner and Dean and Castiel would be able to get burgers in safety. “If you boys still wanna pursue this, come find me there.”


End file.
